A refresher course for instructors is currently being held by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) at its headquarters in 6 October city, with the participation of 35 instructors from 30 countries The objective of the course, according to Bester Kalombo, CAF refereeing manager, is to brief instructors on the CAF panel new approaches in handling, teaching and learning materials. "There are so many emerging issues in the development of referees," Kalombo said. "In addition to technical and mental preparation, we have now developed physical fitness instructors, as these aspects complement each other." Kalombo noted that a lot has changed since the last evaluation course held four years in Benin and Nigeria for Francophone and Anglophone instructors respectively. The programme will include informing the participants on the FIFA refereeing assistance programme, taking a look at laws 11 and 12 of the game, introducing match analysis as an instructional tool and also match analysis as a test of acquisition knowledge in the rules. "There will also be an open discussion on the view of the instructors regarding what topics should be included in the next programme to be designed from 2010," said Kalombo. Earlier this month the CAF organised an evaluation course for Francophone coaching instructors in Morocco to keep participants abreast of the latest developments and also to evaluate new instructors in coaching on the newly created regional panel. More than 29 participants from 26 countries participated in the course. "The regional panel, a new strategy, is being implemented to add to CAF panels a number of promising instructors from different regions to form a strong catalyst in our determination to build a strong base in our development programmes," said Abdel-Moneim Hussein, CAF director of football development. "For the past five years, the CAF development division has been working with instructors to disseminate our activities to their respective regions and countries from the grassroots level," said Hussein. According to Hussein, the most important issue discussed was the CAF licensing system. Instructors will be in charge of the licensing coordination in the continent. "The licensing system is a new strategy by CAF to evaluate coaches with grading. In the future only licensed CAF coaches will qualify to coach a team," Hussein said. He added that the participants were delighted to see the CAF licensing system being implemented, which is also a boost to the development of football on the continent. "The next step is the organisation for the Anglophone coaching instructors' course on the CAF panel in Uganda," said Hussein.
